Pirates, MLB spring training rev Manatee real estate market

MANATEE -- Finding a place to stay during spring training in Manatee and Sarasota counties is not an easy proposition -- even if you are a professional baseball player.

In Manatee County alone, nearly 19,000 people came to town in 2015 to take in Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games at McKechnie Field or Baltimore Orioles games at Ed Smith Stadium. This year, according to the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Grapefruit League baseball crowd will stream into a market that is still at least 800 rental rooms short of ideal.

While February and March is a great time to catch an open-air baseball game, these months are the heart of the season when vacationers and part-time residents fill hotels and long-term rentals and buy vacation homes. With each passing year, growing demand for accommodations puts the squeeze on teams and their fans.

To get as many people housed as possible, the Pirates and Orioles organizations work with local hotels and rental real estate agents to find spring training accommodations. Fans are even getting some help from the teams. The Pirates promote several partner hotels in their spring training literature and at their ballpark. The Orioles just launched a partnership with real estate firm Michael Saunders & Co. that will bring the agency to spring training games and some special events to promote Manatee-Sarasota real estate.

This week, just days after the start of spring training practice, Pirates players and organization staff are settled in and ready to play ball. Trevor Gooby, the Pirate's senior director of Florida operations, said the team is housing between 150 and 180 minor league players in dormitories at its Pirate City practice facility in Bradenton. Another 200-plus major leaguers and staff are living elsewhere throughout the two counties.

The secret to getting so many people housed at the same time every year, Gooby said, is starting early and keeping in contact with local real estate and rental agents. He said the team encourages its players and employees to reserve accommodations in Manatee County whenever possible.

"It is getting more difficult," Gooby said. "It's always something that we have to work on."

Members of the Pirates organization who need to have roofs over their heads during spring training take a number of approaches. More than 20 members of the Pirates' front office staff live in the Bradenton-Sarasota full time. Some players, including pitcher Tony Watson, also own homes locally, county property records show.

Shawn Walter, the director of sports at the Bradenton visitors bureau, said rental properties are also popular among players, particularly on Anna Maria Island. Fans get in on the action, too, with some renting the same properties year after year.

For both groups, spring training is a long-term commitment.

"When they do that, they look for rental houses to stay the entire month," Walter said.

For Pirates employees who don't make it to the beach, downtown Bradenton is a prime destination. The Pirates have sponsorship partnerships with two hotels there, the Hampton Inn & Suites and the Marriott Courtyard. Kelly Ann Dixon, the marketing director for the Hampton Inn, said the hotel is housing members of the Pirates communications and advertising staffs and some of the team's trainers.

Those guests, plus Pirates fans coming to town for games, are part of a mix that will have the hotel nearly 100-percent booked over the next several weeks. And while local beaches are still the top draw for hotel guests, Dixon said Pirates advertising on display in the lobby catch guest interest.

"We do get a lot of the northerners who aren't necessarily coming for spring training but who do get tickets to the games," she said.

For the Orioles, housing members of the organization and drawing fans to rentals and to buy homes in Sarasota County is a return on the $31 million investment the county made in renovating Ed Smith Stadium for the team seven years ago. David Rovine, vice president of the Orioles Sarasota operations, said the team has to house all its spring training staff and players in the community, as it does not have dormitory rooms.

Now in the seventh year of a 30-year stadium lease, the Orioles are looking to attract more long-term visitors to Sarasota by putting its spring training fans in closer contact with the local real estate market. Rovine said the Baltimore-Washington area has been identified as the top Sarasota visitor feeder market in the nation. The Orioles recently struck up a long-term partnership with Michael Saunders & Co. to help the area capture more of vacation rental and home purchase dollars from those visitors.

Rovine said it's not much of a stretch for fans who visit for spring training to invest in longer-term rentals or buying homes once they get familiar with the Sarasota area.

"There's a natural extension of people that might stay in a hotel for a week or so while watching spring training," he said.

Michael Saunders agents will be at spring training games this season to talk to fans about rentals and homes. Drayton Saunders, the company's president, said Sarasota visitors need more help finding a place to stay.

"I think rental space in season is probably the single biggest challenge we've had due to our success," he said. "You have to start much earlier. Almost a year out."

The spring training crowd could soon see more rental property available in the form of hotel rooms. Walter said Manatee County is currently negotiating to bring a hotel with at least 125 rooms to the Bradenton Area Convention Center in Palmetto. Last month, downtown Bradenton appeared to be on its way to getting more hotel space when Spring Hill Suites purchased waterfront property near City Hall.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter@MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Pirates, MLB spring training rev Manatee real estate market ."